[Question] How do I do something as simple as...

making a channeled ability a passive ability. A strange on-attack thingy.

What I want is to be able to cast a channeling ability upon attack WITHOUT showing THAT ability's icon. For example, I want to be able to cast Cloud on attack but the only display on the command card should be a passive dummy icon. I just want to use the actual ability on attack whilst only showing a dummy icon.

I have tried doing the disabled spell book trick and detecting when a particular kind of unit attacks but it doesn't work. I THOUGHT it would work. Thought being the keyword...

GUI or JASS solutions are fine, but for this one I'd really rather JASS. [i]I'm willing to learn.

Suggestions?

So you want your hero to cast the spell when he attacks or a dummy?

If you want your hero then:

- Use an attack detection engine
- Make sure your hero has a spellbook ability. We will call that spellbook SB1.
- Make another spellbook ability, we will call that SB2.
- Create the spell you want to channel and make sure SB2 has it on its spell list.
- Disable SB1 initially.
- Detect when a unit is attacked, condition should be Attacking Unit's Level Of YourAbility >= 1 (YourAbility should be passive btw!)
- Add SB2
- Order
- Remove when necessary

For dummies just create them and make them cast :P

Um, what I need is the unit/hero to do this. Also I don't understand how that would work since it looks like a more sophisticated version of what I did... please explain. It would be appreciated.

Oh shit, I totally forgot about this:

All you need to do now is just add the spell(no spellbooks required :P) you want the hero to cast, order the unit to cast it and disable it. It won't stop channeling and it will be hidden.

Just to be safe, make it use a black icon so it won't get noticed too much.

So... the moment the unit attacks...

1. Add the ability
2. Cast the ability
3. Disable the ability
4. (upon finish casting) Remove the ability
5. Re enable the ability

Would that work? If so, I'll test it a little later.

why don't you just use dummy unit to cast the spell ?

If you want to do some OnAttack system that returns to the attacker instead of the dummy you'll need to do some attachment to the dummy that returns to the original caster, so basically u can do a longer link, something like

hero attack -> dummy cast spell -> some unit is damaged

*on your damage detect sys
so some unit is damaged -> (is damager dummy_id?) -> if yes -> check the dummy reference and return to the caster

I hope you read the first post because I need a CHANNELING ability.

Your above mentioned method should work, Tide-Arc Ephemera.

uhuh... so you want to channel a spell upon attack? sorry my bad... but yea... your method above should work

It works but there is still a mild trace of the interface... I used Textures\Black32.blp and here's the trigger I'm using. It works perfectly, except the green glow exists as long as the ability is being channeled.

Anyway, if anyone else wants a quick reference of what I did in case they want to do it in future...



EDIT: Don't try this.
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EDIT
+Rep to Pyrogasm and Malf (is that the Spell Thread duo?)

EDIT!
It says I love Pyrogasm too much

Works.

Take a look at the second method!

o.O I didn't see those posts when I was replying :/

I feel so left out. (///.–)

QUICK NOTE
The second method I posted does not work... I just tested it, and it doesn't work.
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QUICK EDIT!
This is retarded, it doesn't work with non-channeling abilities and I need it to be compatible with them, too.